and then she said: WOUND!
2018
installation: red light; white silk, golden spray
video, sound, colour, loop, 3’08’’
video, colour, loop, 3’19’’

Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person as a mere object of sexual desire. Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their personality or dignity. Objectification is most commonly examined at the level of a society but can also refer to the behaviour of individuals and is a type of dehumanisation. This is what Wikipedia’s definition of sexual objectification says. The act of objectification is crucially connected with the violence and trauma. However, in my work I decided to put my focus onto the power-related aspect of it.

The work is meant to depict the inner voice of the trauma that one is going through. In this case, based on my own experience. However, I believe it brings to live a spectrum of emotions that such experience would cause, like: fear, shame, disregard.

The installation contains of two videos, the voice over and the cloth with rules for women. A very special atmosphere of intimacy is created. Two bodies together, unconsciously fighting, in fact just showing the move connected to protectiveness as well as possession against each other. The violence is silent, just like the suffering of the victims of the objectification - in this particular case women. The latent pain comes to the viewer from the monologue, the voice over created on the basis of a particular stream of thoughts that comes after an abusive experience. All content of work is shaped by the lighting and the limited space - because of the cloth hanging around the room. The texts from the cloth is based on the Polish police’s decalogue for woman that has been published in 2016, its purpose was to save the female citizens from the sexual abuse and rape.

The videos have their strength in the stability and predictability. The smooth movement of stroking the hair or gently touching the body creates an illusion of a loving relationship between those two. At the same time it builds the awareness of one being overprotective of the other, one owning another in a way. The video puts a strict line between what’s feminine and masculine, this highlights the power and patriarchy issues that are connected with sexual and (or) gender related violence acts. The gestures captured and two bodies touching each other with certain tenderness represents the relationship between two people; build up the narration of unconscious feeling of safety but at the same time vulnerability and fragility and inequality of those two roles of a protector and the one being protected. The installation is surrounded by bright red elements. The curtains, waving in the video and showing the way of escape; the tonality of the night-based scene of two people playing against their pre-formed roles; finally the light that covers the whole room and creates the atmosphere of unknown (but somehow familiar), unconscious danger. The monologue adds to it and closes the composition of the room with the feeling of anxiety and fear.